In recent years, the issue of Grandparent’s rights to visitation in divorce has come to the forefront. Sadly, what will often happen in divorce are the parents of the non-custodial parent end up cut off from their grandchildren. This may be especially true if the grandparents and grandchildren live a far distance from each other.

Grandparent’s rights have become a controversial issue. On the one hand why should grandchildren be denied time with a grandparent because their parents no longer live together or are getting a divorce? Conversely, at what point does the intervention of the courts infringe upon a person’s civil liberties?

People going through a divorce often feel that they have little or no control over their lives anymore. It seems the court system takes over their life, telling them how to live, where to live, how much money to live on and on.

VISITATION

Exactly what is visitation? To put it into its simplest form, visitation is when the court sets a specific schedule for a person to have access to the child. In other words in the case of grandparent’s visitation the court will order that the children be made available to the grandparent on specific day for a specified amount of time.

Unfortunately, just because a grandparent is being denied access to their grandchild does not necessarily mean they will qualify for court ordered visitation. Grandparent visitation is governed by statute and case law, and each state has their own laws.

During a divorce, communications between all the parties often breaks down. Every effort within reason should be made to have time with the grandchild before court papers are filed. Mediation is one option available before filing papers. Filing in the courts for visitation should be the last resort.

The requirements for court ordered visitation vary by state. In most, but not all states, if the grandchild’s parents are still married the grandparents are not entitled to visitation. Depending upon the state, the following situations may give rise to grandparent visitation:

Pending divorce

Parents already divorced

Parent deceased

Child born out of wedlock

As you can see, this is a complicated issue. If you are a grandparent that is being denied time, without good reason, you have a big decision to make. Once the decision to pursue visitation the next step is to find a professional that specializes in third party custody and visitation.

What does "reasonable visitation" mean?

When a court determines the visitation rights of a noncustodial parent, it usually orders "reasonable" visitation, leaving it to the parents to work out a precise schedule of time and place. This allows the parents to exercise flexibility by taking into consideration both the parents’ and the children’s schedules. Practically speaking, however, the parent with physical custody has more control over the dates, times, and duration of visits. He or she isn’t legally obligated to agree to any particular schedule, but judges do take note of who is and who is not flexible. If you are uncooperative merely to vex your ex, it can backfire when you need to ask the court for something in the future.

Parents have to cooperate and communicate frequently, for the reasonable visitation approach to succeed. If you suspect right off the bat that reasonable visitation won’t work, insist on a fixed schedule and save yourself time, angst, and possibly money. If you’ve already agreed to reasonable visitation and it isn’t working out — for example, one parent is consistently late, skips scheduled visits, or doesn’t inform the other parent where he or she is planning on taking the children — you can go back to court and ask that the arrangement be changed.